David C. Lewis and The Hearts Center Community

David is a mystic, spiritual teacher, composer and author for the Aquarian Age. Founder of The Hearts Center Community in February of 2005 with seven other heartfriends, David’s desire from early childhood was to know more of God and be of service to others. Although raised as a Catholic, David embraced the concepts of karma and reincarnation at age fourteen after reading Edgar Cayce’s The Sleeping Prophet. And for the next thirty years he studied the world’s major religions through a mystical, esoteric lens. Twenty-two of those years, David spent living and working in an intentional spiritual community.

The spring of 2004 was a time of profound mystical awakening for David. He began receiving telepathic communications from the ascended masters, enlightened spiritual beings who reside in higher planes of consciousness—a heavenworld. Since these messages were meant for a community of believers, The Hearts Center, a movement named by the ascended masters, sprang up around his messengership. David maintains that he is not the messenger for the ascended masters but rather a messenger, affirming that all of us can and should develop our own spiritual faculties. In fact, that is the work and teaching of The Hearts Center Community.

The Hearts Center, a non-profit organization, is dedicated to helping people everywhere connect with and nurture their own divine potential. It has grown in the last four years into a worldwide movement with local centers in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and South Africa. Its newly redesigned website: www.theheartscenter.org, offers over eleven hundred HeartStreams—inspired discourses from the ascended masters—published in audio, print and video format. Introductory articles, live service broadcasts, and event and pilgrimage broadcasts serve its virtual community.

The term heartstream, was inspired upon David to explain the many ways we commune with our divinity. It is the subject of the chapter, “Heartstreaming: The Mind of God at Work,” co-written by Michael K. McNeil and David for the anthology, Healing the Heart of the World, published in 2007 by Elite Books. Among David’s other published works are a collection of more than 150 devotional prayers, songs and mantras. Now, Zen and Always is a feast of spiritual wisdom served in joyful, bite-sized pieces. His articles on meditation and the spiritual science behind sungazing can be found on The Hearts Center website.

Since 2005, David has kept a busy schedule conducting prayer and meditation services, teaching for Meru University’s telecourses, doing internet presentations on The Hearts Center site, and radio broadcasts in New York and South Africa. He has conducted more than forty conferences and seminars in sixteen countries and has led pilgrimages in America, Mexico, Brazil, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Sweden South Africa, Japan, Taiwan and throughout the Far East.

David is married and lives in Paradise Valley just south of Livingston, Montana.

Ron Berezan, The Urban Farmer

Ever since his first “accidental” food garden as a young university student, Ron has been exploring and promoting new possibilities for growing food sustainably in urban areas. He has been trained in the “Bio-Intensive” organic gardening method at Ecology Action in Willets, California and in permaculture design at the Kootenay Permaculture Institute and Occidental Arts and Ecology Centre. He is a Master Gardener and a member of the Society of Organic Urban Land Care Professionals (SOUL).

Currently, Ron operates “The Urban Farmer,” an organic gardening, edible landscaping and Permaculture design service in Edmonton. Ron incorporates food production, habitat creation, bio-diversity and resource conservation into his work with urban landscapes. When his hands are not in the soil, Ron offers workshops on a variety of organic gardening and Permaculture themes throughout Western Canada. Ron is also an avid paddler, hiker, musician, and community activist.

Ron enjoys local media support having written articles for “The Edmonton Journal,” “The Edmonton Examiner,” “Vue Weekly,” “The Alberta” and the “Gardener.” CBC Radio has utilized his expertise as a regular gardening commentator.

Urban Permaculture
Creating Abundance for People and the Planet

Permaculture offers us an integral system of ethics and strategies for regenerating eco-system health while meeting essential human needs such as food, water, medicine, energy, beauty and community. This movement has emerged from its earliest roots in tropical and sub-tropical rural environments to have a growing and dynamic impact in cities around the world. From yard-scale food production to neighborhood revitalization and the creation of resilient communities, cities are fertile ground for the permaculture vision. This presentation will explore some key permaculture principles and practical examples of how we can live these out in our homes, communities and cities.

Dr. Natacha Kolesar, I.D.E.A.L. Society

Dr. Natacha Kolesar is the founder of I.D.E.A.L. Society. She was born in Russia and later immigrated to Czechoslovakia where she received her Ph.D. in Philosophy prior to becoming a university professor. Dr. Natacha Kolesar then lived in France and in the United States before settling in Canada.

I.D.E.A.L. Society, the Institute for the Development of Education, Arts and Leisure is located in Jaffray, British Columbia, on 480 beautiful acres of land in the Canadian Rockies. It all began in 1993 when Dr. Natacha Kolesar launched an educational project with a group of parents including teachers, artists, health care workers, musicians and other professionals.

Together, the Society developed programs and activities that encompass a wide range of knowledge in the fields of self-development, psychology, the arts, natural health, organic gardening, education, energy production, housing construction and leisure activities.

To share its collective knowledge and experience with the global community, the group created the following branches of their organization: Ecosun Development and Construction, the I.M.A.G.E. School Association, and Ideal Wellness. One of the I.D.E.A.L Society’s goals includes developing a way of life that embraces the laws of nature and respects the earth as a living organism.

Dr. Natacha Kolesar has been giving lectures, seminars, and TV and radio interviews internationally for more than 30 years. She is the Executive Director of IDEAL-SPRING International Foundation, an affiliate of IDEAL Society.